Greatest Black Movies

Sunday, October 24, 2010

I proclaimed in one of my blogs that black people are more religious and steadfast than other races and Soledad O’ brien in her new documentary “Almighty Debt A Black in America Special” concurred because she said the same thing. In a recent study it said that nearly 82% of black folk say they attend church as compared to 67% of whites. For black folk even going back to slavery and the civil rights era have seen the church as a one stop shop for all of their needs. In the new Documentary The pastor in which the piece that Soledad is highlighting is a financial advisor, guidance councilor and even job coach. This is because to black folk their church is the center of their universe. However, many churches don’t deserve such allegiance because many churches I have been in contact with are doing the same old same old. Which is focusing on the here after and not focusing on a person’s time on earth. In Soledads documentary Rev Deforest Buster Soaries calls it an Ecclesiastical pyramid scheme. Where the pastor preaches prosperity and he’s the only one who is prosperous. I remember calling my pastor years ago when I was out of work and I turned to him, he said that he would pray for me. How about him calling up one of the flock that was hiring and putting us together. The church that Soledad was highlighting did just what I am talking about, getting people hooked up with persons who were hiring. The problem with the black church is that they are too busy praying about the problem and spend no time solving the problem. Prayer with out works is dead. People are waiting for the here after and not paying attention to what is happening right in front of their face. There was even a report on CNN which highlighted a large percentage of black women single in the black church. I wonder if there is a connection between all this steadfastness to the church and being single? http://survivingdating.com/black-churches-how-black-churches-keep-african-american-women-single-and-alone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp1egxXDc5k&feature=related

My major problem with the black church being someone who grew up in the church is that most black churches preach the gospel of prosperity and the preacher are surely prosperous driving two and three luxurious cars, but the follows seem to be always waiting faithfully for crumbs. Eddy Long & Creflo Dollar have not done too bad with profits exceeding 60 million dollar and Long make's a reported 3.5 million in salary. Dollar true to his name fly's in a private jet and drives a black Rolls-Royce. Boy are they prosperous. And when we get cured from athletes feet we rejoice. Shoot all we need is a small promotion at our worthless job or someone to recovers from non major surgery and we seem to have enough non-connected blesses, that they can attribute to god and in turn the church. We do not need any real evidence that the church is doing anything for us because that is faith. Faith does not need any evidence. The problem is that many people have faith in their pastor and clergy and equate that with their faith in GOD. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME. WAKE UP. We should demand more out of our churches and Pastor especially because we go to them for everything and blindly hand them 10%. They should help us with our life in a real and tangible way like the pastor in "Black in America." I went to church myself for years and all I was getting was just a pep talk. I needed more than just a coach and some of us sometimes need more also. I can pray at home and read my bible any day of the week. I don't want my pastor to just tell the kids to pull up their pants and tell the women to not dress so revealing. It's not just about telling people what they are doing wrong and praying, it's time for lazy pastors to really help the people because if god has it covered, that what is the pastor doing. We are in a modern time with an old world model of church and I believe it's morning and we need to smell the coffee. Church goers also use church as a way to be lazy, because they will pray about it and forget to do anything but prayer. I mean people rarely solve problems. I would go to Buster's Church because he is actually trying to solve problems and not giving the automative response "I pray about it" http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/01/soaries.black.church/index.html

1 comment:

*I can see your point of view about how on one hand some churches do not deserve this allegiance but maybe theses churches offer something else like hope.

*After seeing Soledad’s special report on CNN really raised a lot of questions for me about the condition of Black America’s debt and I also began to wonder what kind of church do I go to? Is it just a hope church?

*I am sorry to hear that you were out of work and turned to your pastor for help and did not receive anything but words. I wonder if that would have happened to me?

*Church is suppose to be more then a social club but who decides what they should or should not do or is that already assumed because of who and what the church represents in the black community?

*I do agree with you that the Pastor of a church and God are not the same and the church needs to remember that.